Valve Distancing Itself From Piston, Xi3 Corp.

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I'm not surprised after Xi3 announced the cost of the thing. How can you compete with game consoles when you are wanting to charge $500 more for specs that are lower than the competition?
 
OMG their booths were in the same area? They must be together!

Valve has ALWAYS said "steam box" will be a platform. Which basically just means steam. And while they may make an in house machine, it will be open to all manufactures.

Anyone who though Xi3 was it would have to be nuts considering their previous unreasonable price and specs. There is no reason to cost so much and be that small except lock in to their upgrade boards. Small form factor PCs can fit normal hardware at much lower prices, and even high end hardware.

Valve SHOULD distance themselves because this wanna be console maker hurts their idea for steam box with it's insane price.
 
Those prices just make their thing another gimmicky overpriced item that will never catch on. Those specs are 500 dollar range. And those upgrade costs are as rip-off bd as Dell does with alienware. They should make those with a standard HD and the APU for $399 then have versions goin up from there that have various APU upgrades and the SSD options. $1000 for somethin with very small storage and no discrete graphics is a huge ripoff.
 
[citation][nom]stickmansam[/nom]Rather get a much more capable mITX build for the same price or an HTPC A10 APU for much cheaperIt is a nice idea they have going about modularity but hard and likely expensive to implement[/citation]

They could do it fairly cheaply- just have a few pieces of hardware on expansion cards. There could be a CPU/RAM card (with integrated graphics for lower end models), an internal input/output card (chipsets, SATA, etc.), an external input/output/networking card (USB, Ethernet, WiFi, etc.), a discrete graphics card for higher end models, and so on that attache to a motherboard that is basically just a hub to connect the different card/module components. Using standard hardware with merely modified PCIe card form factors shouldn't be all that expensive.

Several options for the cards' interface come to mind. If PCIe turned out to be too expensive, the more open HTX (Hyper-Transport eXpansion) interface could be used instead and there are other options too. Xi3 could have done this cheaply and they chose not to. IDK why, but it wasn't because there was no feasible way to do it much more cheaply.
 
it was smart for them to not say much...they now at least know that 1k is not the price range....

It needs to have an FX chip/7850 range under 450 to make it a viable option. Or they need to just wait for the next APU from AMD to come out....
 
[citation][nom]loops[/nom]it was smart for them to not say much...they now at least know that 1k is not the price range....It needs to have an FX chip/7850 range under 450 to make it a viable option. Or they need to just wait for the next APU from AMD to come out....[/citation]

That's probably a bit of a stretch. It's difficult to even do a home-built system with those specs and otherwise decent hardware in a MicroATX or ATX form factor within a budget that tight.
 
Finally, a smart article that UNDERSTANDS and DETAILS that the Piston and Xi3 have no affiliation with Valve and their Steambox project! I have been saying this for WEEKS since CES, hell even Valve's booth at CES had a little box that was built for playing TF2, go find that picture and you'll see the size Valve really intends for the Steambox! I believe the article with pictures is on the Verge.
 
IMO the steambox won't appeal to enthusiasts. It'll probably be a very low price (for the specs) mid teir gaming PC to lure people away from consoles and act as a transitory device to get more people back into PC gaming by getting them to buy monitor, keyboard, etc and when they're ready to upgrade to a proper gaming system they can.

Valve has always done accessibility. Why would the Steam Box be any different?
 
Why does it need to be this small? If it is competing in the TV-attached-console-gaming arena then a similar form factor is acceptable, something the size of a Mini-ITX case. Uses standard PC componants and the only real restriction is if you want a really slim case you will need low-profile graphics (which isn't a huge restriction as you can still get better than HD gaming with some low-profile cards). Standard RAM, standard SSDs or HDDs, install Windows or Linux if you really want to.

DIY, it's the way, alternately someone out there can start making them and sell them as a Steambox for a LOT less than $1000
 
whether this is steam box or not, there's no way that im buying a $1000 console/pc that has igp while you have console that costs a lot less.

i love steam but what games can they play using a compact pc? controller friendly game? low graphics?
 
At 1000k they can keep it for themselves.
Even at half that price I'd think twice.
And that "7000 series GPU" is most likely the one on the APU.

So not so expensive APU + mini motherboard + dirt cheap memory + some SSD = 1000$? Are you kidding me?
 
[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]That's probably a bit of a stretch. It's difficult to even do a home-built system with those specs and otherwise decent hardware in a MicroATX or ATX form factor within a budget that tight.[/citation]

Just tried to configure it on a not so cheap german site, here is the config:
CPU: AMD A10-5700 (Trinity) - 112.90
Case: SilverStone SUGO SG06B USB 3.0 - 117.90
HDD: ADATA Premier Pro SP900 2,5" SSD 128 GB - 102.90
Mainboard: MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 Sound G-LAN WLAN SATA3 USB 3.0 eSATA BT 1 - 83.90
RAM: ADATA DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1866 Kit - 64.90

Total: 482,50 Euro.
 
[citation][nom]kartu[/nom]Just tried to configure it on a not so cheap german site, here is the config:CPU: AMD A10-5700 (Trinity) - 112.90Case: SilverStone SUGO SG06B USB 3.0 - 117.90HDD: ADATA Premier Pro SP900 2,5" SSD 128 GB - 102.90Mainboard: MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 Sound G-LAN WLAN SATA3 USB 3.0 eSATA BT 1 - 83.90RAM: ADATA DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1866 Kit - 64.90Total: 482,50 Euro.[/citation]

euros a big step up from USD.
 


Gotta keep the context in mind. Blaz responded to someone who insisted on much higher specs than the ones you've posted:


(Emphasis mine.)

An HD 7850 kicks the living crap out of a Trinity's integrated GPU. It's also a rather large discrete part (as of right now). Then, of course, there's the exhange-rate issue Carol mentioned.
 
The only people i see buying these things are people that travel alot. As most hotels rooms are switched/switching to LCD tv's. Just plug in the HDMI cable, power and a controller, and maybe a portable keyboard for people that can't live without their MMOG.
 
Steam Box will be like the Android OS.

Valve provides software, but doesn't monopolize hardware - anyone can produce a "steam box" and I am sure we will see varying prices and hardware configurations.
 
THe cost is due mainly because of their specific concept. They designed motherboard, specific connectors, etc...
But the pricing is completely off the reality. PS4 and next Xbox will be somewhere 500-600USD when they go out. You will have small android based game consoles for 100-150USD if the size is that important. And those console will get updated every year. If you play Real Racing on some modern smartphone (quadcore CPU) ou will see graphics are really great. By the end of the year there will be even better hardware.

So they are going against Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and those small android consoles with 1000USD product! They should spend some time researching the market.
 
I still don't get the whole Steambox thing. Are there going to be any exclusive titles on this thing? If not, why then buy it? Surely if you have a PC at home and want to play Steam games you can just do it. Drop in a new GPU and/or CPU if the need is there. It would seem to me that heading to Newegg or TigerDirect and buying one of their pre-configured systems would make more sense. I just don't see the point in a company releasing a PC and slapping the title "SteamBox" on it. I would think Valve's money would have been better spent promoting Steam itself, rather than the R&D and promotion they'll have to do for trying this SteamBox that will likely have a very small market relative to their community of Steam users/broader console market.
 
[citation][nom]DRosencraft[/nom]I still don't get the whole Steambox thing. Are there going to be any exclusive titles on this thing? If not, why then buy it? Surely if you have a PC at home and want to play Steam games you can just do it. Drop in a new GPU and/or CPU if the need is there. It would seem to me that heading to Newegg or TigerDirect and buying one of their pre-configured systems would make more sense. I just don't see the point in a company releasing a PC and slapping the title "SteamBox" on it. I would think Valve's money would have been better spent promoting Steam itself, rather than the R&D and promotion they'll have to do for trying this SteamBox that will likely have a very small market relative to their community of Steam users/broader console market.[/citation]
The idea -- and I think it's a good one, at least in principle -- is to broaden Steam's market by placing a visible and obvious console competitor in front of otherwise oblivious console consumers. The people who know to go to newegg or Tigerdirect aren't the target audience.

The devil, as always, is in the details. Can Valve provide a cost-effective console alternative without overextending themselves? Hard to say at this point, because we have very little concrete information about the next-gen consoles. The PS4 looks like it's going to be a beast, for example -- and Sony is a far bigger company than Valve, able to broker highly advantageous deals with hardware manufacturers like AMD, and (perhaps more importantly) able to sell the console for very little, if any, profit.

One thing's certain: the Xi3 Piston ain't the cost-effective console alternative Valve's looking for. It's a boutique product aimed at people who are more concerned with the machine's distinctive look than they are with its performance.
 
No suprise here.
Steam are not stupid... Xi3 could tell the thing could be upgraded easily with a modular design... small like this, most thing in it are CUSTOM MADE (like a barebone). Xi3 with also sell those part at high price (like the current price).

The biggest missing point by Xi3 is the GPU - The GPU should be external module (easy to change).
They could build a custom connector or use Intel Thunderbold.
Without this, you can't call this Piston a modular design... It's just a PC where you can change few parts.

The system should cost arount $340US without GPU and OS.
The gpu module should cost roughtly the same price of a gpu sell in a RETAIL box.
 
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